Caltech researchers reveal unexpected sources of nitrogen fixation
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have identified an unexpected metabolic ability within a symbiotic community of microorganisms that may help solve a lingering mystery about the world's nitrogen-cycling budget. view more (2009-10-16)
Surprising new insights into the repair strategies of DNA
A microscopic single-celled organism, adapted to survive in some of the harshest environments on earth, could help scientists gain a better understanding of how cancer cells behave. view more (2009-07-16)
Methane-eating microbes can use iron and manganese oxides to 'breathe'
Iron and manganese compounds, in addition to sulfate, may play an important role in converting methane to carbon dioxide and eventually carbonates in the Earth's oceans, according to a team of researchers looking at anaerobic sediments. view more (2009-07-10)
Rampant helper syndrome
The Archaea are single-celled organisms and a domain unto themselves, quite apart from the so called eukaryotes, being bacteria and higher organisms. view more (2009-07-06)
Nickel isotope may be methane producing microbe biomarker
Nickel, an important trace nutrient for the single cell organisms that produce methane, may be a useful isotopic marker to pinpoint the past origins of these methanogenic microbes, according to Penn State and University of Bristol, UK, researchers. view more (2009-06-23)
Geographic isolation drives the evolution of a hot springs microbe
Sulfolobus islandicus, a microbe that can live in boiling acid, is offering up its secrets to researchers hardy enough to capture it from the volcanic hot springs where it thrives. view more (2009-05-28)
Microbes turn electricity directly to methane without hydrogen generation
A tiny microbe can take electricity and directly convert carbon dioxide and water to methane, producing a portable energy source with a potentially neutral carbon footprint, according to a team of Penn State engineers. view more (2009-03-31)
Our microbes, ourselves
In terms of diversity and sheer numbers, the microbes occupying the human gut easily dwarf the billions of people inhabiting the Earth. Numbering in the tens of trillions and representing many thousands of distinct genetic families, this microbiome, as it's called, helps the body perform a variety of regulatory and digestive functions, many still... view more... (2009-01-20)
Unusual microbial ropes grow slowly in cave lake
Deep inside the Frasassi cave system in Italy and more than 1,600 feet below the Earth's surface, divers found filamentous ropes of microbes growing in the cold water, according to a team of Penn State researchers. view more (2008-12-22)
New cell division mechanism discovered
A novel cell division mechanism has been discovered in a microorganism that thrives in hot acid. The finding may also result in insights into key processes in human cells, and in a better understanding of the main evolutionary lineages of life on Earth. view more (2008-10-28)
Bold traveler's journey toward the center of the Earth
The first ecosystem ever found having only a single biological species has been discovered 2.8 kilometers (1.74 miles) beneath the surface of the earth in the Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa. view more (2008-10-10)
Molecular sleuths track evolution through the ribosome
A new study of the ribosome, the cell's protein-building machinery, sheds light on the oldest branches of the evolutionary tree of life and suggests that differences in ribosomal structure between the three main branches of that tree are "molecular fossils" of the early evolution of protein synthesis. view more (2008-08-19)
Study reveals surprising details of the evolution of protein translation
A new study of transfer RNA, a molecule that delivers amino acids to the protein-building machinery of the cell, challenges long-held ideas about the evolutionary history of protein synthesis. view more (2008-08-13)
Microbes beneath sea floor genetically distinct
Tiny microbes beneath the sea floor, distinct from life on the Earth's surface, may account for one-tenth of the Earth's living biomass, according to an interdisciplinary team of researchers, but many of these minute creatures are living on a geologic timescale. view more (2008-07-22)
Nature publishes new evidence about the deep biosphere written by biogeoscientists
Biogeoscientists show evidence of 90 billion tons of microbial organisms-expressed in terms of carbon mass-living in the deep biosphere, in a research article published online by Nature, July 20, 2008. view more (2008-07-21)
Deep sea methane scavengers captured
Scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena succeeded in capturing syntrophic (means "feeding together") microorganisms that are known to dramatically reduce the oceanic emission of methane into the atmosphere. view more (2008-05-14)
Researchers probe a DNA repair enzyme
U. of I. researchers have taken the first steps toward understanding how an enzyme repairs DNA. Enzymes called helicases play a key role in human health, according to Maria Spies, a University of Illinois biochemistry professor. view more (2008-02-19)
A new control mechanism for genetic code translation discovered in bacteria
Almost all organisms, from bacteria to human beings, share the same genetic code, a group of universal instructions used to convert DNA or RNA sequences into proteins, the "building blocks" of life. view more (2008-02-15)
Paired microbes eliminate methane using sulfur pathway
Anaerobic microbes in the Earth's oceans consume 90 percent of the methane produced by methane hydrates - methane trapped in ice - preventing large amounts of methane from reaching the atmosphere. view more (2008-01-17)
Elevated Carbon Dioxide Changes Soil Microbe Mix Below Plants
A detailed analysis of soil samples taken from a forest ecosystem with artificially elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) reveals distinct changes in the mix of microorganisms living in the soil below trembling aspen. view more (2007-12-20)
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